Horseshoe Vineyard, Chardonnay, 2016

A fabulous chardonnay by any standards, impeccably crafted from the high altitude, monterray shale soils of Horseshoe vineyard. This wine always tends towards the saline, and the 2016 is no exception, but there’s also fantastic intensity and a taut ripeness to the fruit. Briny notes of green olive meet fresh lemon zest and Maldon salt, with notes of fennel, mint and crushed stones joining on the palate. What’s satisfying is the combination of intensity and focus married to a certain amount of flesh and texture. Very good indeed. The cool deep Rhys cellars allow for very long slow malo-lactic fermentations in the chardonnays, which are often not entirely finished before they transfer from their year in oak to stainless steel. Very lightly toasted four year dried wooden barriques, of which just 15-20% is new, and just the very slightest note of reduction, a facet of taking the wine to steel with its lees.